Bad News And Good News

My Technogas Built-in Oven for 15 years

I came home one day and was surprised to see Mum waiting for me at the door. "I have bad news and good news for you!' she said.

'WHAT?' I asked with my eyes wide opened.

'Your Technogas oven finally stopped working..that's the bad news. Good news is you can now buy your DREAM oven !!' my mum said.

My niece was trying to bake some Velvet Cupcakes while I was not at home and what 'luck', the first time she atempted to use my oven, it decided to 'end its life'!

I went to the kitchen immediately to check my oven. After a few attempts to 'revive' it, including opening up the plug to check the wires, I pronounced it 'DEAD'! It had a few 'minor self-treatment illnesses' and one major 'operation' at the service centre. I promised myself that the next time it stopped functioning, I would buy a new and better oven. I would not say it is a very good oven because the distribution of heat is not that even , but anyway, it had been with me for more than 15 years. It is worth the money already.

So, it's time to look for my new oven ....FINALLY!! YEAH !!!

Initially, I had wanted to buy my DREAM oven , Baby Bellings... that's because from young, I have heard how good it is. But strangely, it is no longer available in all shops, only from the sole distributor, Amtek Marketing. I called the company and they say the new model will not be available till after August and there will be NO GLASS DOOR . Ugh!! I was so eager to get this model with glass door and now I may have to change my plan. Furthermore, my mum advised me to get another brand because Baby Belllings has a rather small capacity.

Perhaps a dream may just be a dream.. you THINK it's good, it may not actually be. Okay... listen to advice and be more ready to accept new ideas.

Meanwhile, fortunately, my Mum has an old but still reasonably good oven for me to bake my son's GFCF cakes. Take a closer look at the second knob.... it's GONE !

Mum's 'Antique'

After looking through and asking around for brands like Tefal, Bosch, Brandt, Rowenta ( mainly European brands... I DON'T want those made in China  or Malaysia!), I decided to consider Rowenta as my first choice. I was quite lucky that there was a cooking demonstration class conducted by a baker at Mega Courts. The baker was helpful enough to explain to me how to choose a good oven and why Rowenta is a good choice.

So, final decision..... I got Rowenta 7868 for $680. (FYI, not at Mega Courts which sells the same oven at a higher price)

My New Love--Rowenta 7868

I was so eager to try out the oven when it was delivered to my house. I baked a loaf of Banana Bread with a packet of GF Banana Bread Mix given by my friend who bought it at Australia. It was easy and quick, just have to add eggs, oil and milk.

A Slice Of Banana Bread--quite oily though

Not too bad ... considering that I had used to WRONG mode for baking cake ! Ha Ha... So excited to try out the oven that I did not read the instructions carefully!

I'm going to love baking EVEN MORE now :)

ps : And what happened to my old oven....

it has become a storage space 

because it is built-in and cannot be removed.